The Battle of Diego Garcia

January 21st, 2003 - West Point Forest - Diego Garcia

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"Myōkō! Myōkō! Come on, Myōkō, wake up!"

Fuji's shouts rang out through the forest, meeting no response. She felt completely helpless. In a fight, she was unparalleled, but in a situation like this, she could do nothing but watch as Salem tried to resuscitate Myōkō. 

"How is she looking, Salem?" asked Fuji in a panicked tone. She could hardly gather her thoughts together.

"Her condition doesn't make sense at all. There's no sign of any injury, but something put her into cardiac arrest and completely stopped all of her vital functions."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" As Fuji made the offer, the voices in her head resurfaced, and she could hear the scornful voice that haunted her the most.

Really, little battleship? You are trying to save a life? That is not something you are capable of. Do something better suited to your limited talents. 

She grabbed her head with both of her hands, trying to maintain her balance as she crouched next to Myōkō's limp body. Salem didn't seem notice, or if she did, she didn't react to it. She probably thought it was just the shock.

"No, don't worry about it Fuji," Salem said, not missing a beat as she kept doing chest compressions on Myōkō, "I can handle things here. You should go and get the Admiral. He's our priority right now."

The Admiral.

Fuji couldn't feel that he was in danger anymore, and she could tell that he was close. She didn't know how she could tell; they must have a connection, something that the Admiral didn't have with anyone else. That same connection had been what had started the voices in her head, back in Yokosuka, when she had felt the Admiral's pain, and his desire for peace.

She nodded at Salem, and took off running into the woods before waiting for a response. She didn't know where exactly she was going, just whichever direction felt right. After a few minutes of running around aimlessly, she found her way into a clearing, empty except for two people: a woman in a red-and-white cloak over an olive uniform with long blonde hair, holding a gun in her hand, and, lying against a tree at her feet, the Admiral.

In an instant, Fuji had her rifle pointed at the woman.

"Who are you?" she barked out, her heart beating so loud that it echoed in her ears.

"That's of no importance to you," said the woman, slowly turning around to face her, "little battleship."

Little battleship. It was the same thing that the voices in her head called her. 

"Don't call me that," she snarled, her anger growing.

The woman didn't seem to care. She pointed her pistol at Fuji's head.

"You can't kill me, can you, little battleship. You don't have the resolve."

Fuji faltered at those words. As she heard them, she knew that they were true. But as she looked at the woman, she could tell from her cold expression that she would not hesitate to kill her. But there was something behind that cold façade. It was familiar to Fuji, something she had felt before. That was it. Burning rage and hatred. It was how Fuji had felt when the Admiral had been injured. Now that same hatred was being focused back at her through this woman's eyes.

"What do you know?" Fuji asked, trying to sound confident, but her voice wavered.

"I know that today, as we stand here, we are not enemies, and have no reason to kill each other right now. Will you take my word for that, little battleship?"

Despite the neutral tone of her words, Fuji couldn't believe the woman's words. The hatred in her eyes was overpowering, and felt like it was crushing her the same way that her nightmares did. 

"What did you do to the Admiral?" she asked, remembering her priorities. 

"Who, the Builder?" as she saw Fuji's nod, the woman continued, "I sedated him. Nothing more."

As soon as she learned that the Admiral was still alive, the voices flooded back into her head, resuming their assault on her faculties. Pointing the gun at the woman, and even just considering the possibility of killing her, was just too much for Fuji to handle, and she dropped it on the ground with an exclamation of pain. 

"You're going to have to come with us," Fuji said, inching closer to the Admiral, "To ensure that none of your commandos try attacking us."

"I'm afraid that that will be impossible," responded the woman, putting her gun into her coat, "I have things that I must do."

"You don't have a choice," answered Fuji. She stood in a fighting stance, her fists raised. While they had been in Yokosuka, she had learned a little bit of martial arts from some of the other shipgirls. It wasn't much, but it was enough that she was confident in a fight, even without a gun. 

"Bad choice, little battleship." The woman's tone changed for the first time in their conversation, switching from cold to mildly annoyed. In an instant, she rushed forward, her face almost to Fuji's.

Fuji couldn't tell what happened. She could see it, or at least some of it. The woman had gotten in close, and then Fuji's vision turned until she was lying on the ground, staring up at the trees, and she felt several strong impacts: her legs, her arms, and her stomach, where the woman must have hit her. The woman was faster and stronger than Fuji had ever even thought possible. She said something, but Fuji couldn't hear it. Her ears were taken up by a sharp ringing, and her vision blacked out.

***

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Salem was outgunned, and surrounded on all sides. She had resuscitated Myōkō, but she was passing in and out of consciousness. Fuji still hadn't returned, and Salem had to assume the worst. About a dozen commandos had surrounded her almost an hour-and-a-half earlier, and had kept her pinned in a little divot between two trees. Whenever she tried to shoot back at one of them, another would lay down suppressing fire, forcing her to hide again. 

But she wasn't just wasting time. She was a Des Moines-class heavy cruiser, with some of the best guns in Oceanus, even if they weren't the strongest. She had been pinpointing each of the commandos' locations, figuring out exactly where they were. She popped out her head again, aiming her rifle at a bush 60 meters away. She saw it moved as the commando behind it ducked for cover, and pulled her head back just in time to feel the heat coming off of bullets passing through the space where her face had been moments ago. 

With that, she had all of their locations. She reached out to her hull, and felt her guns begin to move as she directed. They turned to face the forest, the different barrels raising to different elevations, as each shell was lined up for a separate target. 

BOOM!

The nine blasts from her guns merged into one explosion, which quickly transitioned into the whistling of the shells as they rushed towards the ground. They arced high through the sky, coming down at a sharp angle, landing almost on top of their targets. Nine thuds, and nine eruptions of dirt, trees, and flames released at the impact points of each shell. By the time the first salvo hit the ground, the second was already well on its way, and the third was about to be fired. 

In less than half a minute, each target had been hit several times for effect during the bombardment, and, as far as Salem could tell, all of the commandos had been killed. Pulling up Myōkō onto her shoulder, she ran off in the same direction that Fuji had, following her footsteps through the fallen forest.